COLUMN: Town after War of 1812 bore little resemblance to today's Marblehead

Monday

Jun 9, 2014 at 8:55 AMJun 9, 2014 at 1:48 PM

In June 1814, the United States and especially its seaside towns and the areas along the Canadian border had been engaged in a second war against England for exactly two years.

Judy Anderson / Marblehead Architecture Heritage

In June 1814, the United States and especially its seaside towns and the areas along the Canadian border had been engaged in a second war against England for exactly two years. By the end of May, after extensive and bloody action in the Atlantic Ocean and on the Great Lakes, the eastern seaboard was essentially blockaded and patrolled by enemy British vessels.

In August, the British would invade the new nation’s capital and burn the White House, the Capitol building (which still lacked its rotunda and dome) and most public buildings, including those that housed the Senate, House of Representatives, national archives, the first Library of Congress and the Treasury. The Patent Office was the only government building left untouched, though a disastrous accidental fire in 1836 would later destroy all 10,000 patents, 9,000 drawings and several thousand patent models. That was the only time since the American Revolution that a foreign power ever attacked the U.S. capital.

During the war, and specifically in 1814, three men from Marblehead were in high political office in the nation’s capital of Washington City, and another occupied perhaps the highest position in the state. Attorney Samuel Sewall, after whom Marblehead’s Fort Sewall was named, was chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, appointed in 1814 after 14 years on that judicial body following four years in the United States Congress, 1796-1800, in Philadelphia, the capital at that time.

Merchant-turned-statesman Elbridge Gerry had been appointed vice president of the United States by fourth President James Madison after two terms in the U.S. Congress (1789-93) in Philadelphia, a diplomatic mission to France soon after and a term as governor of Massachusetts (1810-12). Gerry would die in Washington in November 1814 and is the only signer of the Declaration of Independence buried in our nation’s capital.

Another son of Marblehead, attorney Joseph Story, had been appointed to the United States Supreme Court in 1811, the youngest ever still to this day; he would retain that appointment until his death in 1845.

And from 1811 to 1815, merchant William Reed served as a U.S. congressman through the entire war, participating in the deliberations and voting against the war in June 1812. Reed had been born in 1776, the year American independence was declared. He and his wife, Hannah, daughter of merchant Robert Hooper (the Patriot, not “King” Hooper), spent some of his session time in Washington City and were involved in vital women’s and family relief in Marblehead, along with others.

For two centuries prior, the Atlantic Ocean had been a highway for North American commerce. But as the 1700s ended and the 1800s commenced, an extended war in Europe, Russia and the Baltic region, propelled largely by the ambitions of Napoleon Bonaparte of France, brought trade to a virtual halt. Much of the confrontation took place between the navies of France and England, mostly in the Atlantic, and both were growing short of manpower. Losses on both sides were often replenished by abducting or “impressing” seamen from American ships. And each of the belligerent nations endeavored to pull the new — and neutral — United States into the fray, first against France and then against England.

Although most of New England had opposed going to war, it appeared more and more essential for restoring America’s economically vital commerce. And to many, it seemed the only way to end the more than two decades of “impressment” or kidnapping of American seamen since the time of the Revolution and after.

President Madison had reluctantly advocated for war, and after the very close Congressional and Senate votes in favor in early June, he signed the official declaration on June 18, 1812.

What was not known, however, was that just five days later, on June 23, after months and years of diplomacy and negotiations abroad (and the unrelated assassination of the heretofore unyielding British prime minister in May), the British government finally repealed its aggressive policies relating to neutral vessels and foreign trade. But it was too late. The U.S. declaration of war was already on its way across the Atlantic.

Nearly three years of conflict ensued, mainly at sea and on the Great Lakes. The war claimed 20,000 British and American lives, in addition to grave losses for Native Americans and extensive destruction of ships, property and government infrastructure. In the long run, however, Canada benefited on several levels, and the United States gained a sense of unity and national identity and pride.

In 1812, Britain’s hundreds of navy vessels far outnumbered America’s roughly 16 Navy ships — including six large frigates that had been built in the 1790s, though a few more were added later — and the scores of privately built and outfitted vessels sent out from coastal Atlantic ports.

By 1814, Britain’s blockade of almost the entire Atlantic coast further crippled the economy and made it difficult for American ships to venture out to seek and engage enemy vessels, or to return after brutal battles at sea.

In both conflicts, just as in the 20th century’s two World Wars, multiple sons and brothers served, and many families, both American or British, and to a lesser extent Canadian or Native American, gave up fathers as well as sons. And at the war’s end in early 1815, just as in Korea and Vietnam, more than 500 seamen from Marblehead remained in British prisons, even if not for very long — an almost unfathomable percentage of the total from Marblehead who saw action.

Many of those who did return were maimed and could no longer work to support their families. Some languished in generally ineffective military hospitals, and many would never recover from their wounds, despite their families’ care at home. Others were lost, never to return.

With such significant losses in Marblehead’s population of able-bodied men and boys, countless families were destitute, and scores of widows and orphans had no means of livelihood. That led to crowding in the town’s workhouse and poor house, and the establishment of family aid organizations such as Marblehead’s Female Humane Society, established in 1816.

It is difficult to imagine the appearance of the town and the conditions in Marblehead in 1814, especially as compared to today. Homes were dilapidated, crowded and filled with families of women, children and older men facing shortages, sometimes nursing wounded husbands, brothers and fathers, and so many waiting for hoped-for returns of loved ones — some of whom they would never see again.

Despite the traumatic times, young people came of age and were married, raised new families and would rebuild the fishing economy to prosperity that would dramatically transform the town in the 1820s and ‘30s and beyond.

Judy Anderson of Marblehead Architecture Heritage is a social and cultural historian with a focus on architecture, daily life, and women’s and family history. She was curator of the Jeremiah Lee Mansion for a decade and worked with it for 16 years. She gives talks about the Mansion, Marblehead’s early architecture and history, decorative arts and historic interiors.